The number of types of devices allowed to cooperate with a smart terminal such as a smartphone (hereinafter simply referred to as “gadgets”) has been increasing. As an example of the gadget allowed to cooperate with the smart terminal, there is peripheral device allowed to expand a camera function, a storage function, a display function, or the like, of the smart terminal. When a number of gadgets cooperate with the smart terminal, a user may receive more sophisticated services.
However, the resources included in the smartphone, which is used for cooperation with the gadgets, (for example, radio band, the number of connectors, and the like) are limited. Thus, when the number of gadgets that are the cooperation targets are increased, it is desirable that a connection configuration between the smartphone and the gadgets is changed so that the cooperation between the smartphone and some or all of the gadgets is performed through a gadget that functions as an access point.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a change in a connection configuration between a smart terminal and gadgets. In (1), a smart terminal is coupled to each of gadgets d1 and d2 directly. In (2), an example of a connection configuration when a gadget d3 is further coupled to the smart terminal is illustrated. In this case, for example, it is assumed that the gadget d3 is not allowed to be coupled to the smart terminal directly due to lack of the bandwidth of the smart terminal. Therefore, a gadget d4 allowed to function as an access point is coupled to the smart terminal, and the gadgets d2 and d3 are coupled to the smart terminal through the gadget d4.
Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2006-524973 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-152917 are related arts.